Stop Ping from showing in iTunes

This will stop Ping from being displayed, but we can go further and completely disable the service.

Disable Ping in iTunes completely

From within iTunes, open iTunes Preferences

Click on Parental controls

Under “Disable” select the checkbox next to “Ping”

I’m not sure why the ability to disable Ping is under Parental Controls but it does work to turn off the service completely. You can combine these two tips and all references to Ping will now be removed and the service will be disabled from iTunes.

Although not officially advertised as part of the iTunes 10.1 release, this is a very easy way to turn off the Ping service. Previously, you had to manually disable Ping buttons and disable the Ping sidebar through a series of Terminal commands.

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Neither of those options works, and neither does deactivating it via my iTunes account. I’m up to iTunes 10.5x and Ping still haunts me every time I make a purchase. It’s especially obtrusive after each iTunes upgrade, which is when Apple sends all the demons of Genius, Ping etc flapping out of the edges of the screen.